Mexico, Hierarchy, Protective Authority

Highly Productive and Fully Human

Lorenzo Servitje was the founder of Grupo Bimbo. In En esto creo (This I believe), a statement of his beliefs reproduced by Catholic.net, he wrote: “Creo que hay que procurar el bien de quienes trabajan con nosotros” (I believe that we must look after the good of those who work with us). A company, he wrote, should be “no sólo altamente productiva sino también plenamente humana” (not only highly productive but also fully human).

He died in February 2017, at the age of 98. Expansión quoted him on the company’s staff: “el cariño que tenemos para esa gente, la verdad es que los queremos” (the affection we have for those people, the truth is that we love them). His son Daniel, then the head of the company, said his father taught him to treat people “como personas y no como instrumentos” (as persons and not as instruments).

The Value of the Manual Worker

The Ideario Cuauhtémoc, published by FEMSA, sets out principles of Eugenio Garza Sada, the Monterrey industrialist. Principle 13 reads: “Reconocer el enorme valor del trabajador manual” (Recognize the enormous value of the manual worker), “cuya productividad hace posible la posición directiva y afirma el futuro de ambos” (whose productivity makes the managerial position possible and secures the future of both).

According to the Congress of Nuevo León, he promoted “la creación de despensas familiares y el otorgamiento de casa propia para los empleados” (the creation of family food baskets and the granting of homes of their own to employees). He was killed in a failed kidnapping in Monterrey on September 17, 1973.

The Cross on the Building Site

On May 3, the Day of the Holy Cross, Mexican bricklayers place a wooden cross with flowers and ribbons on buildings under construction. They ask the cross to keep them from accidents and falls during their work. According to UnoTV, “los patrones acostumbran ofrecer una comida a sus trabajadores” (the employers usually offer their workers a meal).

On May 3, 2025, the newspaper Por Esto reported from a gym under construction in the city of Campeche. The workers stopped mixing cement, said a short prayer and raised the cross to the highest point of the building. Then they brought out the food that their employers had given them, “carnitas y refrescos” (carnitas and soft drinks).

A Doctor at No Cost

In 1912, the peons of the hacienda of Tecoac, in Tlaxcala, complained of mistreatment and other grievances. One was that the cost of medicine was deducted from what they were owed. The owner, Gustavo Bretón, answered that when the peons fell ill, “les regala las medicinas habiendo llegado hasta traer un médico sin cobrarles” (he gives them the medicines, and has even brought a doctor without charging them).

According to the historian Mariano E. Torres Bautista, the workers agreed with the owner’s account. In the agreement of September 9, 1912, Bretón committed himself to keep giving medicine to the sick. National social security did not yet exist.

The Political Godfather

The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy gives padrino, godfather, a sense beyond baptism: “Persona que ampara y protege a otra, y que a veces emplea su poder para facilitarle la consecución de algo” (A person who shelters and protects another, and who sometimes uses his power to help the other achieve something). Mexican political talk speaks of the padrino político, the political godfather.

In July 2026, La Razón reported on padrinazgo among Morena’s aspirants for governor. A political scientist said that one aspirant in Baja California, Julieta Ramírez Padilla, walked a tightrope “debido a la sombra de su principal padrino político” (because of the shadow of her main political godfather). Another expert warned that an aspirant who accepts a padrino político risks losing all independence in office.

Almost Like a Family

In 1918, the Cervecería Cuauhtémoc of Monterrey founded a cooperative for its workers. In 2011, Expansión described it: the company “creó una sociedad cooperativa, que se encargaría de manejar los servicios para los empleados y sus parientes, casi como si se tratara de los miembros de una familia” (created a cooperative that would manage services for the employees and their relatives, almost as if they were members of a family).

Benevolence and Control

In 2003, P. G. Martínez published “Paternalism as a positive form of leader-subordinate exchange: Evidence from México” in the journal Management Research. The study draws on field data from organizations in Mexico and from U.S. organizations owned by Mexican immigrants. The leaders it describes look after their employees’ welfare at work and in their personal lives.

Martínez concludes that “paternalism combines paternalists’ benevolent acts with their subtle control over subordinates’ flexibility.”

Dinner with the Boss

On September 25, 2023, the business columnist Mauricio Candiani asked in El Financiero: “¿Invitarías a tu jefe a cenar a tu casa?” (Would you invite your boss to dinner at your home?). His answer was yes, “pero nunca forzada o conveniencieramente” (but never forced or for convenience). “Soy partidario de la socialización en casa” (I am in favor of socializing at home).

At work, he argued, it pays “construir puentes de armonía, confianza y entendimiento” (to build bridges of harmony, trust and understanding). He also drew a line: “Una cosa es gozar de un jefe cercano y otra es confundir cercanía con amistad” (It is one thing to enjoy a close boss and another to confuse closeness with friendship).

Bonds at Work

In February 2026, the job site OCC surveyed 2,930 workers in Mexico for its Termómetro Laboral. “Un 59% de los participantes indicó que sí ha generado vínculos con alguien de su espacio de trabajo” (59 percent of participants said they had formed a bond with someone at work). Of these, 29 percent had formed a close friendship. Seventy-one percent said that a friendship with the boss is possible without harm to the work.

Forty-one percent had formed no bond at work.

Employees of Trust

Mexico’s Federal Labor Law has a legal category called trabajadores de confianza, “employees of trust.” Article 9 says the category depends on the nature of the work: direction, inspection, supervision and control of a general nature, and work related to the employer’s own personal affairs within the company.

Article 185 lets the employer end the employment of such a worker “if there is a reasonable motive for loss of trust,” even when it does not match the causes for dismissal listed in Article 47.